Toyota is moving
forward despite the bad press and recalls and is looking to the
future where it may be the first company to offer a hydrogen fuel
cell vehicle that is “affordable”. Toyota is targeting
a price of $50,000 for its first retail hydrogen fuel
vehicle. Bloomberg
reports that the $50,000 figure reflects a 90% reduction in cost for
hydrogen fuel cell technology since the mid-2000s.

The first
hydrogen powered vehicle would be a sedan with a range equal to that
of a gas-powered car. Toyota's Yashihiko Masuda, managing director
for advanced automobiles said, "[The hydrogen vehicle would
compare to gasoline vehicles] with some added cost."

Masuda
said, "Our target is, we don’t lose money with introduction of
the vehicle. Production cost should be covered within the price of
the vehicle."

Toyota won't talk about how many of the
vehicles it expects to sell. Masuda told Bloomberg
that the market would be small, but would have some support. The
support would likely be mostly from local and state governments.

The
biggest issue facing the adoption of hydrogen-powered vehicles isn’t
the cost of buying the vehicles. The big issue is the fact that there
is little to no infrastructure to speak of across the country. Most
hydrogen fuel station are located in California, and even within
California, there are but a handful. Hydrogen also currently costs
much more than gasoline.

One of the cost cutting methods that
Toyota used to help bring down the price of hydrogen vehicles was to
use less platinum on the fuel cell construction. The automaker will
reduce the platinum used in fuel cells from about 1.06 ounces per
vehicle to the area of 10 grams per vehicle. The price for platinum
now is about $1,675 per ounce.

Toyota
isn't the only company looking at hydrogen vehicles, GM already has
hydrogen powered vehicles in use that are leased to retail customers
in the Los Angeles area.

California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger said, "Hydrogen is the most abundant element in
the universe, and we can have it forever. We need to wake up the
federal government."

Before GM starts retail sales in
California, the automaker wants at least 40 hydrogen fuel stations in
the Southern California area -- currently there are ten. GM believes
that 40 stations could support 15 million drivers in the region.

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